Same View, Different Day

Today I thought we'd play a little game called Same View, Different Day. Or, in our case, maybe Same View, Different Year. Yeah. That works better. I am always so impressed by the before and after pictures on other house blogs. They really drive home the fact that the pretty room was not always pretty...and quite possibly the pretty room started out as a downright mess. So, without further adieu, the best of our before and afters, kitchen edition:

Before:


Annnnd After:
Although it's hard to tell, this IS the same view. The window you see in the before pic was closed up to allow for the range and range hood (not installed yet). We added a window over the new sink (for reference, you can see the floor mat in front of the sink in the after pic).

Before I get to the rest of the pics, I should add that while the kitchen is almost done and is fully functional, we still have a lot more work to tackle. Our cabinets came with a very nice crown that hasn't been installed yet...we haven't installed the range hood or range back splash yet...toe kicks are nonexistent...same goes for the under cabinet lighting...oh, and that table you see is filling in for our island, which will house the dishwasher and convection oven (that's why there are two pendant lamps over the table). And now, on to the rest of the pics...

Before:

After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Okay, admittedly that last one is a little bit off, but it's the only after pic of that view I had with me. What do you want for nothin? Geez. :)

Wow! Time Flies...

I can't believe it's been TWO WEEKS since my last post! I literally thought it had been maybe 5 or 6 days. Clearly I'm sleep deprived and a little nutty. Well, I've been trying to put together a nice, long, informative post on the attic renovation. That was where we started when we bought the house and I thought I'd try to catch you up in chronological order. The upside is we have MANY photographs of the attic transformation. The downside is we have MANY photographs of the attic transformation - which makes it difficult for me to clearly and easily tell the "attic story." I do, after all, have a tendency to be a bit long winded. Anyway, I hope to finish up that post in the next couple of days.

Going through a major home renovation with two small children definitely makes things interesting. For example, it's not entirely uncommon for drill bits to show up in the silverware drawer. The kids LOVE touching Daddy's tools. They also LOVE hiding them in crazy places. I always chuckle when I find any of these hidden tools, but the one I found this morning really made me laugh...

Hmm, why is this metal thing stuck next to my mattress? What is this metal thing stuck next to my mattress?

Ahhh, the old putty-knife-in-the-bed-frame. They haven't used this one in a while :)

On a side note, here's me and my handsome husband going to a Fire Department function. He got the Medal of Merit for his work at a car accident - probably why he's so smiley.

Vinyl Siding: It's Not ALL Bad

As I said in a previous post, if given the time and the money, my husband and I would be thrilled to be able to replace the vinyl siding on our house with period-appropriate wood siding, complete with all of the standard Victorian intricacies. Unfortunately, that's not in the budget right now, so we've made do with what we have. At the time we bought the house, it had been sided 6 or 7 years prior. It wasn't in terrible shape and we actually liked the color. We painted the front porch, hung some shutters and pretty much called it finito, as far as the exterior was concerned. The one thing that we did consider doing was replacing the siding on the upper-most peak of the front of the house with half-round (or scalloped) siding in a coordinating color. We figured doing this would restore some of the Victorian charm to the house. But, as with many, many things we have "considered" for this house, it didn't NEED to be done and so it didn't get done. Then fate stepped in...

A couple of months ago we had a pretty bad wind storm. (Can you see where I'm going with this?) No rain, just wind. Nonetheless, there was some minor damage around town and when we got home that day we found that about a quarter of the siding on that top peak had blown right off. Even the insulation board underneath the siding had come off in some places. (And actually hit our neighbor, no less! But that's a different story...) We immediately called our homeowners insurance agent to start a claim. But, because it was the weekend, we had to wait to talk to someone and all the while the wind kept right on blowing. To make a long story short, we ended up losing over 50% of the siding on the top peak. We were the only house on the street - in the neighborhood, even - that this happened to. Shoddy workmanship? Probably. The siding wasn't the only issue we've had with some of the "new" elements of the house. Coincidentally, all of this new work was done by the same company. We decided to give them a call. Not that we were expecting much from them at this point, but we figured that at the very least they should be called out on their crappy work. Well, my husband couldn't even get them to return his call until he pretended to be a new client. Miraculously, Mr. New Client got a call back immediately. Mike and Danielle are still waiting for their return call. After a lengthy and uncomfortable phone conversation, the company basically told us in no uncertain terms that they wouldn't be doing anything to help and 7 years is apparently the shelf life of vinyl siding. Okayyyyyyyyyyyyy.

And so, we got our insurance claim money and my wonderful husband repeatedly climbed up a very intimidating 35 foot ladder to hang our new Cedar Impressions by Certainteed half-round siding (in Cypress) all by himself. And now our house looks like this:

Can't complain, even if it IS vinyl. Oh, and by the way...YOU SUCK, CAMPBELL BROTHERS!!!

Murphy's Law

Okay, so this is the 3-day forecast...

Can you guess which day we are having 70+ people over for my son's birthday BBQ? Note the little "Picnic & Grilling Index" score. It's a 1. Nice touch.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm or The Long, Sad Story of My Obsession with a Pottery Barn Light Fixture

Very rarely do I willingly buy something for the house from places like Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel. For one, when I need something new for the house, be it furniture, decor, etc. my first instinct is always craigslist. And, I don't know who likes overpaying for middle of the road quality, but I don't.

Anyway, I do often look through the Pottery Barn catalogs that end up in my mail box. Hey, they have some great designers working for them - and it's a good place to get ideas. Well, while browsing through the summer catalog last year I FELL IN LOVE with one of their chandeliers. It was an outdoor chandelier, but I wanted it for my (indoor) dining room. I even called Pottery Barn to make sure it could be used indoors. It could. But I didn't order it. Why? Because I could not justify the$300+ price. And so I waited. I waited for Fall and the inevitable clearance sales that would come with it. The chandelier was indeed put on clearance and I ordered it online. Then, in the final stages of online ordering, I learned it was SOLD OUT?!?! Why does Pottery Barn DO this? Why do they leave sold out items up on their website? Is it to taunt us? To mock us for being frugal and waiting? I just don't know.

Well, to add insult to injury, the chandelier was NOT brought back this year. Discontinued. Done. Never to be had. I checked ebay for that mother every day with no luck - except for a particularly painful day when someone had, indeed, listed the chandelier for sale. Pick-up only. In Atlanta. To this day I check ebay whenever I remember. There is no chandelier in my dining room. Am I in denial? Probably. But, if anyone has seen this chandelier (or one like it, but apparently they don't exist) for sale somewhere, PLEASE CONTACT ME:

So Close, Yet So Far Away

While I was thinking about what I'd write for the blog today, I decided to focus on something unfinished. Something that I couldn't post a pretty "after" pic of - just to let the readers (if there are any) know that we are, in fact, still muddling through the murky, horse-hair-plaster-filled waters of home renovation. Accordingly, I present to you Exhibit A:

Our beautiful, MTI air tub. Complete with aromatherapy feature and a very Vegas-esque light show feature. Right in the middle of our unfinished mess of a second floor bathroom. Yes, this is where I bathe my children. This room has been in a semi-finished state for the better part of a year now and we still don't have a contract with a tile installer. Not for lack of trying, though. We have had three estimates done. We actually GAVE THE JOB to one installer. And...nothing. Guess he didn't really want the job, after all. It's gotten to the point where my husband has already mentally added this to his ever-expanding DIY list. Great. I should have the after pics for you some time in 2011.

Happy Birthday Finn Michael!

My "baby" is three years old today. Happy Birthday, Finn. We love you.